Seven young males from a Minneapolis basketball Amateur Athletic Union program were arrested and charged with misdemeanors in Wichita, Kan., after assaulting at least three homeless people in downtown Wichita over the weekend, police said. The young males, ages 12 to 18, were in Wichita to play in the Mid America Youth Basketball championships. They were staying in a downtown hotel and were walking the streets when the assaults occurred on Sunday night. The young males play for Urban Stars Athletics, an arm of Urban Ventures, a nonprofit organization that assists inner-city families in poverty. The assaults started with “people...

Hodges and other leaders at the Vatican for a two-day global climate conference. After a day spent hearing Pope Francis and mayors from across the world speak at the Vatican on climate change and human trafficking, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges said she’s been inspired to focus more on the links between sustainability and poverty. “I really, profoundly understand in a new way that environmental justice is not just a sidebar to climate change action,” she said in a phone call from the Vatican on Tuesday. “And that it’s not just a sidebar to social justice work.” Hodges was one of...

Authorities in Minnesota reportedly arrested a 12-year-old boy early Wednesday in connection with a deadly drug-related ambush last month in a park in Omaha, Neb. The boy, along with two other boys — Jamar Milton, 17, and Shuntayvious Primes-Willis, 15 — allegedly planned to rob two men they lured to Miller Park on June 29 on the premise they wanted to do a marijuana deal, a Douglas County prosecutor told the Omaha World-Herald. Milton and Primes-Willis were arrested Monday, Fox 6 reported. Both teens were being held without bail and charged as adults with first-degree murder. Jamar Milton and the...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A 94-year-old physician who served as team doctor for five U.S. men's Olympic hockey squads has suffered serious injuries in an attack while visiting his wife's grave. KMSP-TV reported that George Nagobads was mugged Sunday afternoon at the Crystal Lake Cemetery and left bleeding from the head. A witness says Nagobads managed to get back in his car and drive away. The unidentified witness says he saw a young man looking through a wallet near the mausoleum before fleeing. Nagobads was the University of Minnesota men's hockey team physician for 34 years until his retirement in 1992....

Leaders of a Minneapolis nonprofit that serves low-income residents used taxpayer money to pay for a celebrity cruise and trips to Palm Beach and the Bahamas, according to a recently completed state audit. Along with the trips, the audit by the state Department of Human Services found that the nonprofit’s leaders spent public money on bonuses, golf, spa treatments, furniture, alcohol and even a personal car loan. The audit concluded that the organization’s longtime chief executive, Bill Davis, misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars from 2011 to 2013. “It was deeply concerning how the dollars are being used,” Chuck Johnson,...

At least three young Minnesota women are now believed to have traveled to Syria to give aid to the ISIS terror group responsible for the brutal beheadings of American journalists, MailOnline has learned. The trio left some three weeks ago, Omar Jamal, a leader of the Somali community in the state capital, St. Paul, tells MailOnline. They said they intended to become nurses tending to fighters injured in ISIS' violent surge in Syria and Iraq. The news comes as 19-year-old suburban Denver woman Shannon Conley who federal authorities say intended to wage jihad has pleaded guilty to trying to help...

It begins well enough. A trail of admirers follow Franken as he tours Bryant Avenue, listening to the activists he meets. Behind an ice cream truck, he shakes hands with a disabled vet and, after a lengthy chat, asks an aide to take down the old soldier's contact information. "North Minneapolis is very important," Franken tells us. "We unfortunately have, as a metropolitan area, some of the greatest disparities in terms of everything -- education, employment, and health care. All of this stuff is connected." He expounds on the same point on stage, noting the need to fund early childhood...

Minneapolis, MN – Better Ed — a 501(c)(3) education reform group in Minnesota — has put up another billboard message across from the Minneapolis Public Schools district headquarters. The message draws attention to the district’s high per-pupil spending and low graduation rate. It reads: “MINNEAPOLIS SPENDS $21,000 PER STUDENT. BARELY HALF GRADUATE. NOT COOL.” Better Ed’s previous billboard message (which had been up since December 2013) also highlighted the district’s poor graduation rate, which was 54% for 2013. Indeed, Minneapolis Public Schools has one of the lowest graduation rates among all urban school districts in the country—a fact pointed out...

TLANTA – Minneapolis has been awarded the 2018 Super Bowl by NFL owners. The owners rewarded the Vikings for arranging to build a new stadium on the site of the old Metrodome by choosing Minneapolis over New Orleans and Indianapolis. The big game will be staged in the Twin Cities for the second time. It was there in 1992, when Washington beat Buffalo. Minneapolis' new $1 billion stadium is scheduled to open in 2016.

Organizers of a one-day street festival in Minneapolis sued the city Thursday, saying an ordinance that limits events around the time of Major League Baseball's All-Star game in July is unconstitutional. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, claims the city ordinance gives MLB the authority to approve activities in certain areas for 15 days surrounding the July 15 All-Star game at Target Field. Organizers of the One Day in July Street Festival, which will commemorate the 80th anniversary of a deadly Teamsters strike in 1934, say MLB shouldn't have control over...

A jury has awarded $125,000 to a St. Louis Park man who alleged in a federal lawsuit that an off-duty Minneapolis police officer challenged him to a fight at a bar, then knocked him out, leaving him with a concussion. Jeremy Axel, an IT salesman, spent the night at Hennepin County Medical Center after his encounter Nov. 4, 2011, with officer Michael Griffin. The jury dismissed two other claims Axel brought against Griffin and another officer in the case. Griffin, a seven-year veteran of the force, was awarded the Medal of Valor last year for being among the first officers...

Oct 6 (Reuters) - A 9-year-old boy passed through security at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport and flew on a Delta Air Lines plane to Las Vegas without a boarding pass, authorities said on Sunday. It was not immediately clear why the child sneaked onto the flight on Thursday, but his action raised questions about airport and airline security.

Minneapolis Police (as well as many other departments) use automated license plate readers to log millions of times, dates, and locations of cars every month. They know where you were, and they keep this data as long as they want. A proposed law, House File 474 (and Senate companion SF385), would force police departments to immediately delete data on non-suspect cars (like yours). This bill is scheduled for a vote Friday (today)in the House. If you think that the police shouldn't track the every move of innocent citizens, ask your state senator representative to support HF474/SF385.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said Thursday he won't seek a fourth term as leader of Minnesota's largest city, creating the first open race for the office in two decades. Rybak's announcement came less than a year before voters in the city of almost 400,000 will choose a new mayor. Several potential candidates had been waiting on Rybak to make a decision before declaring whether they would run, and the field is likely to be large. The decision also should ramp up speculation about Rybak's next political move. The 57-year-old Democrat has been mentioned as a possible addition to President Barack...

The City Council voted unanimously Friday to approve Janeé Harteau as the city's next police chief. Harteau, who previously served as assistant chief, takes over the reins from Tim Dolan, who left the force earlier this month. Harteau is the city's first female police chief, as well as the first openly gay officer in that position

Emergency communications officials say some of the 911 calls made during a shooting rampage at a Minneapolis sign company went unanswered. Communications director Heather Hunt says as many as six people who made 911 calls hung up when no one answered. It's one of the reasons why the city will set up a recorded message to play if 911 callers don't get an answer within 10 seconds. The recording will tell the callers to hang on until an operator is available. The Star Tribune says 16 calls related to the shooting at Accent Signage System were answered. And police responded...

More than $840,000 was awarded Monday to 96 victims of illegal searches, seizures and use of excessive force by the now-defunct Metro Gang Strike Force, including a dozen juveniles who were targeted by a Brooklyn Park police officer. The scandal-ridden gang unit, shut down by the Department of Public Safety three years ago this month, broke through people's doors without justification, seized property without authorization and injured people who were not suspects, according to reports by Mark Gehan, a St. Paul attorney appointed as special master in the case.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota sued Hennepin County on Monday on behalf of OccupyMPLS, the protest group camping out on the Government Center Plaza in downtown Minneapolis in defiance of county rules. The ACLU suit contends that those rules, which forbid tents and electricity, and “certain unwritten procedures enforced by the county” violate the demonstrators’ free speech rights. … The suit asks that new rules restricting the use of chalk, electricity and tents be declared unconstitutional. The plaintiffs are also seeking an injunction against the rules, and they want the county to provide electricity for the protesters. It...

The same study used to justify $270,000 in retroactive raises to Minneapolis Public Schools administrators could be used by the district to cut the compensation of its unionized staff. District leaders say the report, which found that hundreds of employees are paid above-market rates, will be used in contract talks as the district seeks pay and benefit freezes and other concessions from union-represented staffers. The study, compiled by Public Sector Personnel Consultants, found that 30 percent of union-represented employees, excluding teachers, are paid above a maximum proposed salary plan, costing the district more than $6 million per year. "Unions just...

Three people were arrested Saturday night when a melee that a police spokesman described as a "mini-riot" broke out in downtown Minneapolis after a teen dance party. Dozens of police officers from Minneapolis, the State Patrol and other law enforcement agencies responded to a chaotic scene after the Big Bash 2 party, which was held in an exhibition hall next to the Hyatt Regency Hotel at 1300 Nicollet Mall. At about 10 p.m., police responded to a report that hotel security employees were fighting with event-goers, said police spokesman Sgt. William Palmer. Shortly after that, partygoers began moving north on...

Here we go again ... MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Minneapolis mother is looking for the public’s help in finding a mob of teenage girls that she says assaulted her family. The attack happened Thursday afternoon inside Folwell Park on Minneapolis’ north side. (more in article, found on Drudge)

Could Newt Gingrich's week get any worse? Just days into his 2012 presidential bid, the former House speaker has been under fire this week from fellow Republicans for trashing Rep. Paul Ryan's proposal on Medicare during his appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday--criticism that forced Gingrich to apologize. On Monday, an Iowa voter was caught on camera griping him out. And Tuesday, it was revealed that Gingrich at one point owed at least $250,000 to Tiffany's—an embarrassing detail that could potentially come back to haunt the self-described fiscal conservative's 2012 bid.

MINNEAPOLIS-- Dozens of former employees, their families and friends gathered in front of Chipotle in downtown Minneapolis Wednesday afternoon to protest the recent firings of nearly 100 hispanic workers. The protest, organized by a coalition of human rights groups and a local union, was to demand a dialog with company owners regarding the dismissals, which began in early December. The Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee says on its website that the firings are part of an immigration-related audit. Group member Nigel Arevalo says all the fired workers are Latino.

An angry and, at times, defiant gathering of Minneapolis homeowners sent a loud message to City Hall Monday - no new taxes. "We're not going to sit in our houses and just take this year after year after year," said Mark Johnson, who organized an evening rally on the steps of City Hall and launched the website for the group, Minneapolis Tax Payers United. When Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak came outside in the bitter cold without a coat to greet the 20 or so protesters, one person began shouting at the three-term mayor, who initially proposed a 6.5% property tax...

Joel Rosenberg tried to bring a gun into the Minneapolis Police headquarters and the cops wouldn't let him. Now Rosenberg is accusing the cop who took his gun of assault. Earlier this month, Rosenberg, who says he is a science fiction writer and handgun instructor, paid a visit to the MPD chief's office to pick up some documents he'd requested. Sgt. William Palmer, the public information officer, saw that Rosenberg was packing, and asked him to dump the gun. Rosenberg refused. He insisted he had the right to wear his gun. Palmer explained that a court order prevented him from...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A 13-year-old boy is accused of sexually assaulting a fellow student on Minneapolis school bus. Police say the boy assaulted a 12-year-old girl during a Monday afternoon bus route. Authorities say both students are from the Sheridan Global Arts and Communications School. KSTP-TV reports Sheridan Principal Al Pitt sent an e-mail to parents Tuesday which said the matter is under investigation by Minneapolis police. Pitt also said the school was committed to following the school district's discipline policy regarding the incident.

Members of Students Organizing for America, a group of students aligned with the Democratic Party, may face a criminal investigation and possible felony charges after confrontations with an election judge over voter vouching during Tuesday’s election. Ginny Gelms, the interim elections director in Minneapolis, said she will submit a report to the Hennepin County attorney’s office and the Minnesota Secretary of State‘s office today. The offices will investigate a possible incident of improper vouching. Gelms said she was told by the University Lutheran Church precinct’s chair election judge there were two incidents of individuals trying to vouch for people they...

Federal and local investigators swept through the Twin Cities area Monday and arrested more than 20 suspects in connection to an extensive human trafficking investigation involving members of a Somali gang....

fter backing Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty in two previous gubernatorial elections, the Minneapolis Police Officers Federation today announced its endorsement of Democrat Mark Dayton for governor. Lt. John Delmonico, president of the Minneapolis police union, said Dayton has a record of supporting law enforcement officers and has always been accessible to them. One factor in their decision, Delmonico said at a Capitol press conference, was Dayton's pledge not to reduce state aid to cities. His Republican opponent, Tom Emmer, advocates cutting local government aid. Delmonico said 10 Minneapolis police officers have been laid off partly because of state aid cuts....

Minneapolis — The city of Minneapolis has agreed to pay $165,000 to settle a lawsuit seven protesters filed over their arrests while dressed as zombies in 2006. The protesters dressed as zombies and blared music as part of a demonstration against consumerism, but police arrested them for having "simulated weapons of mass destruction." Although the protesters were jailed, they weren't charged. They then filed a lawsuit in federal court saying their constitutional right of free speech had been violated. The lawsuit was dismissed initially but was reinstated on appeal. Jordan Kushner, the protesters' attorney, said the two sides had been...

WASHINGTON — Fourteen U.S. citizens have been charged with attempting to join al-Shabab, a Somali-based terrorist group linked to al-Qaida, law enforcement officials told NBC News. The charges were due to be formally announced at a news conference at noon ET at the Justice Department, NBC reported. The 14 people include 12 from Minnesota, one from Alabama and one from California, the officials said. Al-Shabab is Somalia's most-feared militant group. The group recently claimed responsibility for bombing two sites in Uganda where people were watching a soccer World Cup game on television, killing 76 people. Al-Shabab said the blasts were...

Minneapolis police say a man was shot and killed Tuesday night, just blocks away from people celebrating National Night Out. According to police, the shooting occurred around 6:45 p.m. Tuesday on the 2600 block of Penn Avenue in North Minneapolis. This is the 32nd homicide in Minneapolis this year. At this same time last year, there had been nine homicides citywide. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak says violent crime is down compared to two years ago.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Explosive documents about the Interstate 35W bridge suggest the engineering company the state hired to make sure the bridge was safe actually predicted it would collapse months before it fell apart. The documents are part of a lawsuit victims are bringing against California based URS Corporation. They accuse the firm of predicting a catastrophic event, but allegedly not telling anyone about it. The thought has been tough to swallow for the victims of that day in August 2007, when 13 people lost their lives and well over 100 were injured. "I remember until probably about 5:15 that day,"...

With another fatal shooting early Sunday morning, two more people have died this weekend in Minneapolis. That makes 24 murders in the city so far this year and neighbors are getting fed up with the violence. "I thought it's a war zone the last couple weeks," said Paul Hill of South Minneapolis. From the Southside to the North, neighbors are standing up saying enough. City leaders say it's a small group of known criminals that are causing the violence. so if they're "known", why aren't they known as inmates? "Minneapolis' $50k Fountains Trimmed From Six To Four" http://www.wopular.com/minneapolis-50k-fountains-trimmed-six-four good to...

Somalis in U.S. draw FBI attention War at home seen as lure The FBI is expanding contacts with Somali immigrant communities in the U.S., especially in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, fearing that terrorists are recruiting young men for suicide missions in their homeland. FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson, spokesman for the Twin Cities FBI field office, described the effort as community outreach. Many members of the Somali community are concerned over disappearances, he said.

Minneapolis police need the public's help in identifying a man who robbed a Walgreen's pharmacy on Sunday. According to police, the man implied that he had a gun and demanded prescription pain medication at the Walgreen's at 200 W. Lake St.

Right Side News reads from Douglas Hagmann's website about Mumbai and Minneapolis. The only difference between the two is the passage of TIME. Mumbai is headed here and sooner or later, we will be hit hard and fast by Islamic terrorists. What are we doing now to stop them? When will our government wake up and call these terrorists by name and stop banning the terms from their own dictionary? Policital correctness has the potential of killing hundreds and perhaps thousands of innocent Americans. The Third Jihad and other films all warn of the inevitable attacks in the US, such...

MINNEAPOLIS - The city of Minneapolis is spending nearly $200,000 to sell something that would seem to sell itself: tap water. With her bottle of water in hand, Susan Davis was feeling hot and a little guilty. “It would be great if everyone did drink the tap water,” said Davis. “I think the tap water in Minneapolis is just fine.” Tap Minneapolis is the city's new web site, and PR campaign to promote the city's tap water. But unlike tap water, it's not cheap. The web site costs $75,000. The total cost paid to the PR firm was $180,000.

A political candidate who bowed out of the Minneapolis City Council race is being called a fraud and some people are even calling for a criminal investigation. In an exclusive interview with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, the 23-year-old former candidate for Minneapolis City Council admits he lied to campaign donors, volunteers and supporters. Charles Carlson burst onto the political scene in December. The University of Minnesota grad student with a British accent announced his campaign for Minneapolis City Council.

Two people were hospitalized after being shot Saturday afternoon at the Juneteenth celebration in Theodore Wirth Park. Mike Kinghorn, 23, was shot in the ankle and an unidentified female was shot in the leg. Neither person was expected to be in the hospital very long. The shooting happened just after 5:30 p.m.

A man who was shot in an apparent road-rage incident in Richfield Tuesday afternoon was undergoing surgery at Hennepin County Medical Center for what was believed to be a "serious gunshot wound," police Lt. Todd Sandell said. The victim, who wasn't identified, reportedly was shot by one of two men riding in a blue-green Ford Taurus, Sandell said.

A 20-year-old man has been charged with second-degree murder for a shooting last year, which police say was the result of a dispute over who got to sit in the front seat of a car. Porter Webb is being held at the Hennepin County jail on unrelated charges. On March 1, 2006, Minneapolis police responded to an area near 33rd Avenue and Emerson Avenue North. Witnesses reported seeing three men leaving a body there. Officers found 42-year-old Thyrone Carr, who had been killed by a gunshot that severed his aorta.

With the new year about five hours old, Minneapolis police were called to the city's first homicide of 2007. The killing was linked to an apparent love triangle, police said. Police were called to a home in the 4800 block of Girard Avenue N. at 4:55 a.m. Monday. When they arrived they found a 23-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the torso, said police spokesman Lt. Gregory Reinhardt. The victim was identified by a family member as Daniel Holliday, who lived in the house. He was dead at the scene. Police are investigating what led to the shooting, but...

federal judge sentenced former Minneapolis City Council Member Dean Zimmermann on Tuesday to 2˝ years in prison for taking bribes from a developer. With several dozen supporters filling the courtroom, Zimmermann told U.S. District Judge Ann D. Montgomery that he regretted being "hooked into this situation." "Clearly, had I been more on the ball and alert to see what was happening, this whole unfortunate incident would not have occurred," he told the court. Zimmermann, 64, a Green Party member, apologized to his family and supporters, "all those that I have let down," he said.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A group of zombies have risen up to claim the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin County violated their free rights and discriminated against them. The six adults and one juvenile who were arrested while impersonating the undead in July filed their lawsuit Thursday. The ragged group were arrested for "simulating weapons of mass destruction" during a dance party near the Minneapolis entertainment district. Police alleged that wires protruding from the zombie's backpacks could have been bombs or were meant to imitate bombs. It was later learned the wires were actually radios. The adult zombies were jailed for...

A young man died Wednesday night when shots were fired into a car from another vehicle after the cars turned a south Minneapolis corner, police said. A red Ford Mustang and a suspect vehicle were going east on E. 38th Street and turned south on 22nd Avenue S. about 7 p.m. when shots were fired, Capt. Rich Stanek said. When officers arrived, they found a young man dead in the driver's seat of the Mustang with its engine running.

They've had front and center seats for the Guthrie's opening celebration, lunch at the St. Paul Grill and a backstage visit to the Pearl Jam concert at the Xcel Energy Center, and that's just the first 24 hours for the site-selection team sent to the Twin Cities this week by the Democratic National Committee. The eight-member delegation is touring the area, sizing up Minnesota as a potential host for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The Twin Cities is one of four metropolitan areas on the short list to host the presidential nomination for both parties. Denver, New Orleans and New...

An FBI report to be released Monday will say that violent crime reports in Minneapolis increased more last year than any other Midwest city and that the jump is among the tops in the United States. The crimes of homicide, rape, aggravated assault and robbery increased by 35 percent from 2004, compared to an average 5 percent increase for cities of similar size to Minneapolis across the nation, according to FBI crime statistics given to interim Police Chief Tim Dolan on Friday. Violent crime rose an average of 2 percent nationwide. Dolan said the numbers didn't surprise the department, which...

MINNEAPOLIS - The mayor and police chief of Minneapolis say Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents should stop wearing vests that read "police," saying the practice undermines public trust in local law enforcement. Mayor R.T. Rybak and Police Chief Tim Dolan said in a letter Thursday to the local ICE supervisor, Mark Cangemi, that ICE agents should wear visible identification that would clearly show they are not city police officers. Currently, they said, ICE agents conducting raids often wear vests that simply say "police" with nothing else to distinguish themselves from Minneapolis Police Department officers. The local ICE office issued a...